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Feds Say Terrorist Plot Poorly Planned

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Jun 4, 2007 5:53 am US/Eastern

Feds Say Terrorist Plot Poorly Planned

Ex-Airport Worker Plots Massive Attack On JFK

by Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ― In the latest terrorist threat to New York City, the alleged terrorists are all middle-aged men. The oldest is a 63-year-old Guyanese immigrant Russell Defreitas who was arrested at a diner in Brooklyn. The feds say he was the mastermind of the plot to ignite the jet fuel farm at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

People who know Defreitas however, are astounded at the charge.

"For him to be mastermind of this was utterly ridiculous," said Ricardo Johnson, a friend of the suspect. "He's not a leader. He doesn't have the capacity."

Johnson may only be partially wrong. Federal officials are calling the alleged terrorist plot very poorly thought out.

An explosion at JFK was supposed to light up the pipeline that connects to a depot in Linden, New Jersey by running under neighborhoods in three boroughs.

But unlike 9/11, which was aided by the collapsing design of the Twin Towers, experts say the pipeline system would not help the terrorists. It would keep the damage localized.

"If someone were to blow a line open, you may get a fire and an explosion, it would be dramatic and not look good on TV," said pipeline expert Richard Kuprewicz. "But the zone of influence would be fairly limited because the pipeline operator is going to take action to get the energy off the pipeline and isolate it as quickly as possible."

Petroleum products will burn when set on fire, but they need oxygen to burn. In well-designed pipelines like those at JFK airport, there is no oxygen.

The three other defendants are all in the fifties, all with ties to Guyana and the island of Trinidad. Abdul Kadir is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament, who allegedly sought help from a radical Islamic group in Trinidad.

Authorities pulled Kadir off a jetliner headed to Iran where his wife said he was to attend an Islamic conference.

"They have the wrong man," his wife said. "They need to do some investigating."

The feds say they did plenty of investigating through a drug dealer turned informant who taped conversations about the plot.

Authorities confirm they didn't have money or explosives, but thought it best to bring the plotters in sooner rather than later.

"We don't want these cases to go forward," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "We don't want them to morph into people having the ability to act out."

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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